Aelliana smiled. “Mr. dea'Gauss is speaking with Mizel now.”
Lady yo'Lanna did not go so far as to smile, though she did press her lips together for a brief moment.
“That is excellent news,” she said. “May I be the very first to wish you happy.”
“The contract is not set yet,” Aelliana protested.
The Lady laughed softly. “My dear Pilot Caylon, with the dea'Gauss in negotiation, success cannot be far behind.” She used her chin to point at a man in a very fine tunic, coming toward them up the path.
“Now, here we come upon my good friend Etgora. You will doubtless find him pleasant enough, but pray be aware that he will look first at your rings and calculate from there.”
Aelliana glanced down at her hands. She wore her Jump pilot's cluster and the silver puzzle ring she had from her grandmother.
“I have no shame in my rings, ma'am,” she said composedly.
“No,” Lady yo'Lanna said, sweeping forward, “nor should you.”
* * *
“ . . . it was Plemia lost an elder pilot in the Out,” yo'Taler was saying. “The most curious affair imaginable. She had delivered her cargo, and taken on the return, went onto the port for a bite and a glass—and never returned to her ship. It was like the port swallowed her up.”
“The ship?” Daav asked.
“Ah, there's Korval! No, sir, you'll rejoice to hear that the ship was unharmed. It paid the docking fees until its account ran dry, which is when Port Admin noticed something amiss, and by then the pilot's trail was cold. No one came forward with her ID or a ship key, or any likely tale for taking what they knew was aboard. Nor could anyone recall seeing the pilot after she left with another, before port middle night.”
“She might as easily have fallen into the lake,” Wespail murmured. “Pilots do get drunk.”
“Did anyone find her companion?” someone asked.
“Yes. And he was as astonished as any other to learn that she had vanished. He was employed by the yard where her ship was docked and had come to tell her that there might be need of a rebalancing. Left her at the gate, is what he told the proctors, and none to disbelieve him.”
“The pirates are getting bold,” Len Sar Anaba said. “Even here in Solcintra, there are cargoes going missing as a regular thing—from beneath the noses of trained guards! Down in the Low Port, it's said that the Juntavas rules all. Pilots are in particular peril, and many never return to their ships.”
Daav looked up, warned by a sense he had not known he had.
Aelliana and Lady yo'Lanna were walking toward their little group, escorted by Delm Etgora. He murmured an excuse and moved out of the intent knot of discussants.
“Daav, the gardens are quite beautiful!” Aelliana greeted him, abandoning Lady yo'Lanna's arm for his.
“Yes, they are very fine. Glavda Empri wins awards every year, for its artful and pleasing displays.”
Aelliana moved her hand, showing him Etgora.
“This is Ber del'Fordan, who has the honor to be Etgora.”
“We have met,” Daav said, giving his fellow delm the courtesy of the bow between equals. “It has been some time, sir.”
“It has. You are looking well, young Korval. Pilot Caylon, please, call upon me at any time.”
“Thank you, sir,” Aelliana said.
“Yes, all very well,” Lady yo'Lanna said. “Etgora, I am thirsty. Pray find me a glass of the canary.”
“Certainly, Ilthiria.” He inclined his head and led her to the wine table.
Aelliana sighed, and wilted a little on Daav's arm.
“How do you go on?” Daav asked her. “Do you wish to leave?”
“Not just yet,” she said. “We must give Mr. dea'Gauss time to work! But I would like a glass of wine. It is a vast garden, Daav! And I think I must have walked every step of it.”
“In that case, you must, by all means, have wine, and perhaps even a small plateful of food. Let us see what delights are laid for us.”
As he turned with her toward the buffet, he saw several pairs of eyes following, not him, but her.
Aelliana conquers all, he thought, and only just managed to keep his smile to himself.
Back | Next
Contents
Liaden 11 - Mouse and Dragon
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Nothing is as easy as it looks.
—Terran Proverb
Mr. dea'Gauss was not happy; Aelliana knew it immediately they entered his office. How she knew it—well, likely the knowledge was Daav's, whose fingers were interlaced with hers.
“Your lordship. My lady. May I bring you refreshment?”
“Thank you, no,” Daav said gently, as if the apprehension she felt from him did not exist. “I think you had better just tell us, sir. Has Mizel refused our offer?”
There was a pause—and a sigh.
“Not . . . precisely, no.”
Mr. dea'Gauss moved his hand, showing them chairs, and did not take his own until they were seated. “Mizel has produced a . . . counteroffer, your lordship. Quite an extraordinary counteroffer.”
Daav had taken his hand from hers as they were seated, but Aelliana felt a flutter of hope on her own behalf. A counteroffer. Surely, that was only expected? Contracts were after all about negotiation, and compromise.
“If they are still talking, then there is hope,” Daav murmured, in echo of her thought. “With what have they countered?”
Mr. dea'Gauss drew his notepad to him and touched the screen.
“They ask . . . ” He cleared his throat. “They ask high for the life-price, though had that been the only obstacle I might have counseled your lordship to accept, in order to have all done soonest. They ask, also, for the life-price of a nadelm, and they—” Mr. dea'Gauss looked up, but it was her eyes he sought, not Daav's.
“They demand, my lady, that you return to your clanhouse until the negotiations with Korval are complete.”
“No!” She raised her hand, fingers spread. “That I refuse.”
Mr. dea'Gauss looked even more unhappy.
“There is custom behind it, my lady. Mizel's qe'andra informs me that you had been called home by your delm ere this negotiation had begun. You are thus constrained, as a daughter of Mizel . . . ”
“I will not return to that house!”
Panic clawed at her throat. That house, with Ran Eld behind every door, and her mother, with his ghost in her eyes! It would happen again—her life would be torn from her, the house would wear her down, they would demand—demand duty done, demand that she give Daav over, demand—
“No! I will not go back there to be ground down and destroyed! I will not be a prisoner to Mizel's incompetence! I have appointments—engagements! I—”
“Aelliana.”
Calm and beloved, his voice. She shook her hair away from her eyes, startled to find herself standing and halfway to the office door. Her legs were shaking and her stomach was . . . quite unsettled. It came to her that she was weeping.
“Aelliana.”
Daav held his hands out, palms up, offering himself to her.
“We will find the route, Pilot. I swear it.”
Shakily, she stepped forward, put her hands in his, fully expecting to feel the force of his anger, but instead there was only and truly—
Calm.
She closed her eyes.
“Yes,” he murmured. “Take what you need.”
The panic wilted before this encompassing calmness. She felt peaceful, and alert . . .
“Mr. dea'Gauss,” she heard Daav say.
“Your lordship.”
“Korval perfectly comprehends Mizel's natural wish to guard the well-being of one of its precious children. Further, it is Korval's wish, as of course it is Mizel's, that there be no coercion or threat brought to any of the principals of these talks. Pilot Caylon will therefore remove from Jelaza Kazone—”
“No,” she whispered, her fingers tightening on his, but he went on as if he had not heard her.
“She will remove from Jelaza Kazone, to Trealla Fantrol. If that discomforts Mizel, then to Glavda Empri. If yo'Lanna finds no favor with Mizel, then Pilot Caylon will go to Healer Hall in Chonselta City, remanded to the specific care of Master Healer Kestra. In no case will Pilot Caylon be a prisoner, held to her rooms, or forbidden to have visitors. She will be free to go about her business, honoring her appointments and her social engagements as an adult and fully responsible person.”